For years, a group of doctoral-level academics has been compiling data that exposes the truth about gambling.

Leading the effort — which has been in the works for 20 years — is John Warren Kindt, professor of business and legal policy at the University of Illinois.

The hefty, three-volume United States International Gambling Report took five years to compile and is intended to serve as a warning, Kindt said.

"The United States and the international economies are headed in the wrong direction thinking that gambling will help them," he said. "It's Economics 101 that you cannot gamble your way to prosperity. But you can gamble your way into more recessions and even depression."

Kindt spoke with CitizenLink recently about his life's work. Read On

If you’re baffled by college students’ enthusiastic support for Soviet-lite economic policies, you need to watch several short videos created by members of Young America’s Foundation (YAF).

In the videos, YAF members approach their classmates with a petition calling for the redistribution of student GPAs. “It would make it so that all students have an equal opportunity to go to grad school,” University of Oregon YAFer Kenny Crabtree explains. Students with bad grades would therefore be entitled to points earned by straight-A students.

Their classmates are flabbergasted.

“Is that, like, a joke or something?” one guy responds. Read On

Failed presidential candidate John Edwards, whose political action committee paid more than $100,000 to his mistress' company, acknowledged Sunday that federal investigators were looking into how he handled his campaign funds. But the former North Carolina senator said he was confident no money was used improperly. Edwards' political action committee has been under scrutiny for making payments to a woman with whom he had an affair. Edwards admitted the affair with Rielle Hunter in August after months of denying tabloid reports about the relationship. "I am confident that no funds from my campaign were used improperly," Edwards said in the statement. "However, I know that it is the role of government to ensure that this is true. We have made available to the United States both the people and the information necessary to help them get the issue resolved efficiently and in a timely matter." Edwards' statement was first reported by The News Observer of Raleigh. His political action committee paid Hunter's firm $100,000 for video production in a four-month span in 2006, and then paid an additional $14,086.50 on April 1, 2007. At the time, the PAC only had $7,932.95 in cash on hand, according to records filed with the Federal Election Commission. That same day, according to the records, Edwards' presidential campaign paid the PAC $14,034.61 for what is listed as a "furniture purchase." U.S. Attorney George Holding has declined to comment and said he won't confirm or deny an investigation. Read On

Sen. David Vitter of Louisiana is facing a potentially risque challenge next year. Porn star Stormy Daniels is consideringrunning for the Republican's seat in 2010. Daniels, the star of such films as "Operating Desert Stormy," launches a "listening tour" across the state next week, to "meet with Louisiana men and women and listen to the issues and concerns they struggle with every day." Daniels is not affiliated with a political party, but her listening tour will focus on the economy, working women and child protection. Fans have been wooing the 29-year-old to run for office by launching the Web site, www.draftstormy.com, which calls the 2010 race an "opportunity to start with a clean slate, to elect a representative that we can be proud of, who will work tirelessly, and who will challenge the status quo." The site features the clever slogan: It's the economy, sexy. Vitter is no stranger to the sex industry. Vitter confessed in 2007 to "a very serious sin in my past," referring to his link to the so-called D.C. Madam. Vitter's telephone number appeared on the old phone records of Pamela Martin and Associates, the prostitution ring run in the nation's capital by Deborah Jeane Palfrey. "Several years ago, I asked for and received forgiveness from God and my wife in confession and marriage counseling," Vitter said at the time of the revelation. "Out of respect for my family, I will keep my discussion of the matter there, with God and them." A Harvard graduate and Rhodes scholar, Vitter, 46, was elected to his current office in 2004, becoming the first Republican from Louisiana elected to the Senate since Reconstruction. Previously, he represented Louisiana's 1st Congressional District in the House from 1999 to 2004. He had taken the seat held by former Rep. Robert Livingston, who nearly became the House speaker until his own extramarital affair became public. FoxNews reporting.

WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama is proposing to close tax loopholes for companies and individuals with operations or bank accounts overseas. 

Obama said Monday he wants to prevent U.S. companies from deferring tax payments by keeping profits in foreign companies rather than recording them at home. He also called for more transparency in bank accounts held by Americans in tax havens such as the Cayman Islands. 

Obama said that his plan would generate $210 billion in new taxes over 10 years and "make it easier" for companies to create jobs at home. Congress may resist portions of the plan.

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